Estudio de calcos de textos en francés por estudiantes españoles de secundaria implicaciones en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse the most common errors in the written expression of students of compulsory secondary education in the Canary Islands in the subject of French as a foreign language, through the use of corpus linguistics and the AntConc tool. To carry out this study, a corpus of texts written by students of French as a foreign language in different courses of secondary education in various schools in Gran Canaria was compiled. Subsequently, a detailed analysis of the texts was carried out, specifically with regard to the use of the grammatical structures of the mother tongue (L1) in the written expression in French in order to identify the most frequent errors. This chapter focuses on the study of the analysis of these structure traces: detection, analysis of the error, identification of the source of the difficulty and subsequent resolution. From the analyses carried out, different types of L1 structural calques have been detected, including lexical, semantic and syntactic calques, which have been identified and classified according to their frequency and severity. Among the most frequent errors are lexical calques, which refer to the inappropriate use of words which in French are similar to those of the L1, but which do not have the same meaning. Semantic errors have also been identified which refer to the incorrect use of words which have a different meaning in French. Syntactic errors have also been found, related to the structure of sentences in French and their equivalent in L1. This last section, which has to do with grammatical or syntactic structural calques, has a relevant section within the study since they are the most frequent cases among secondary school students and also form part of the most difficult errors to correct. These errors are especially important, as they can significantly affect the comprehension of the message in writing. As far as the methodology is concerned, after the compilation of the corpus and the searches using the AntConc tool, a visual screening of the cases has been carried out in order to identify and classify them and, in the results section, we will provide a selection of examples to illustrate the different types of calques mentioned above: lexical, semantic and syntactic. This study is relevant to the teaching of French as a foreign language and suggests the need to design specific pedagogical strategies to address these errors and improve the quality of learners' written expression in French. Awareness of the most common mistakes made by students will enable them to be tackled effectively. Therefore, a methodological proposal will be made to objectively work on the errors detected to help students avoid the transfer of inappropriate grammatical structures and vocabulary. This comprehensive approach is essential to ensure significant progress in the mastery of French as a second language and to cultivate a solid linguistic competence in secondary school students.